Fearless enough to care for Africa

20-somethings form Web-based charity with adventures.

20-somethings form Web-based charity with adventures.

February 20, 2007|JOSEPH DITS Tribune Staff Writer

Armed with bags of green mosquito nets, Chris Van Duyne, of Plymouth, entered a swamp of children who had emerged from the shanties of an Ethiopian slum. It wasn't the nets they wanted. It was the candy. One little roll of Smarties per bag. Well, he did want to put the nets in kids' hands, to take home so their families could fend off the mosquito-borne killer of Africa: malaria. But wait a minute. Aren't those brothers and sisters each grabbing for bags? Too many nets for those households. That's OK. Van Duyne, 24, and three buddies in their early to mid-20s, dubbing themselves Fearless Charities, were testing ideas of how to help people in dangerous spots in Africa. So they tried something else. They went door to door and found people more than welcoming. The same kinds of lessons came up as the men dealt in camels in the tiny country of Djibouti and medical supplies in Somalia. In a two-week mission in January, four of the men made their first, exploratory trip to Africa, stocking their Web site with tales of he-man adventure and -- more important in their eyes -- a list of charities that the public can support. "The whole goal of the Web site is to be an Amazon.com of charities," Van Duyne says. Among the items you can place in your shopping cart at www.thefearlessamerican.org: $5 for tablets to purify about 125 liters of water as a way to prevent cholera. $7.50 for one mosquito net made and bought in Ethiopia. $200 for a milk-producing camel that also will help a family carry more goods to market for sale. This, in many ways, is about the 20-somethings' search for a better world, still learning how it works and that it doesn't always seem relevant. The eight founders have day jobs across Indiana, plus one in London. Van Duyne is an investigator at Radde Investigative Agency. Patrick Coleman, 21, of Indianapolis, is the charity's chief of international and public relations. He laments how you could buy a shirt at a popular store, advertised to give a certain percentage to fight AIDS. Is that for research, condoms, drugs? "It's kind of ambiguous, isn't it?" he says. They want to assemble many different causes from distant locales in Africa -- those so dangerous that many charities won't go there. Van Duyne says they aren't going recklessly. Many of them bring the insight of having served together in the U.S. Army. They also bring a passion for travel. Coleman, who has been to China and France, wants to "see the world outside of the bubble I sit in." Van Duyne's mother, Cathy Van Duyne, says her son did much research before starting Fearless Charities but isn't one to wait. "He's got the impulse to go," says the music teacher at North Liberty Elementary School. She asked him, "Isn't there something safer you'd rather do?" He replied, "Isn't that what everybody else does and why they are not going to these countries?" To start their experiment, the group put in $1,000 to buy mosquito nets, $1,000 to buy cholera medicine and $1,000 for 12 iPods to swap for guns in the Somalia capital of Mogadishu, which overflows with the likes of AK-47s. "We wanted to make sure those functioned well," Van Duyne says. The risk in developing nations is that things can easily fall apart if you don't regularly nurture a relationship with trustworthy people on the ground in that country. Van Duyne says, "We pair up with organizations that are already active." To provide medical supplies in Djibouti, the group made a connection with two doctors who often work 12 or more hours a day, treating kids for about $12, which is about $9 less than the actual cost. Van Duyne believes he might build loyalty among individuals to oversee the camel project in Somalia and Djibouti by paying them $300 to $600 a year, a good salary over there. To pay their travel and other costs, most of the eight founders put in about $1,000 each, and they secured about $5,000 worth of flight vouchers from United Airlines, Van Duyne says. Since many of them graduated recently from Indiana University, they've talked college students into fundraisers and Internet "face books" to win clicks on the Web site. Fearless Charities' next trip will be to the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan in April. Perhaps it will remind Van Duyne of the sojourn he took to politically unstable Somalia -- alone, since he didn't want to put the others at risk. From the airport in the capital of Mogadishu, he learned why foreigners take taxis with tinted windows. His untinted taxi quickly drew gunfire, causing his driver to turn around, frantic and yelling. Van Duyne then ran into a Swedish aid worker, whom he'd met on the plane, who found him a tinted Lexus for $30 a day. Wanting to visit the most dangerous spot, he says, he went to the same market where U.S. military were involved in a bloody attack in 1993 as featured in the movie "Blackhawk Down." "I walked in unarmed, and everyone else was armed," he says. There he encountered one of his most gripping experiences on the trip: "You're not ready to accept 13-year-olds carrying around rifles. You're not ready to see dozens of child soldiers." Staff writer Joseph Dits:jdits@sbtinfo.com(574) 235-6158